Last week, the Sun-Times' Fran Spielman was one of the first local reporters to sound the alarm about how the second Donald Trump administration will create challenges for the Chicagoland transportation system. Most notably there's the question of whether the CTA will be able to nail down enough federal funding for its Red Line Extension project to 130th Street, currently projected to cost $5.3 billion, to move forward with construction.
Update 11/18/24, 11:15 AM: While on the day after the election, the Sun-Times listed the cost of the RLE as $5.3 billion, the Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning, which oversees the distribution of federal transportation funds for the region, recently put that number at $5.7 billion.
That inspired me to check in with local sustainable transportation experts and advocacy organizations about what they want to see happen between now and the regime change to help protect the future of walk/bike/transit in our city and region. Here's what they had to say, followed by an essay I originally wrote a few months before the election about Project 2025, which is especially relevant now.
The Active Transportation Alliance
The Active Transportation Alliance is the region's leading sustainable transportation advocacy organization. "While we are still evaluating the full impact the results of the election will have on walking, biking, and transit in our region, we anticipate the incoming administration will be less supportive of sustainable transportation policy and investment than the current administration," said Managing Director of Advocacy Jim Merrell.
"Federal funding is essential for many of our region's most critical infrastructure projects," Merrell added. Regarding the Red Line Extension question, he said, "It is imperative our elected leaders and agency officials ensure that we finalize this funding agreement before a new administration takes over."
"We also have seen important steps taken by the current administration to address the threat large vehicles pose to vulnerable pedestrians," Merrell concluded. "Recently proposed rules would create new safety standards for vehicles to ensure new cars and trucks are designed to protect people outside of the vehicle as well as inside. The U.S. Department of Transportation should expedite the process to ensure these rules are put into place."
Joe Schwieterman
"This is a hard assignment," responded DePaul University's Chaddick Institute for Metropolitan Development Director Joe Schwieterman. "I'm not sure I see much low-hanging fruit."
"The most basic challenge is to ensure 'buy up' from newly elected officials of both parties that infrastructure spending, particularly transit projects, should remain a bipartisan priority," Schwieterman said. "Transportation was only a tangential theme during the election, so opportunities exist to prevent it from becoming a 'hot potato.'"
"The pipeline for federal grantmaking should also be accelerated to the extent possible so undoing projects becomes as difficult and politically embarrassing as possible," Schwieterman added. "Recent federal legislation, including the Bipartisan Infrastructure Bill and Inflation Reduction Act, are long-term initiatives. Much can be done in the next two months to keep the ball rolling."
"Transit advocates should work hard to distinguish between electric buses, trains, and personal vehicles," Schwieterman stated. "Much of the political swirl associated with 'EVs' relates to the rollout of neighborhood charging stations and auto-company jobs, which aren't factors in electrifying transit."
"Make clear that transit funding goes to hundreds of metro areas, including rural communities in both Red and Blue states," Schwieterman concluded. "I suspect many elected officials have no idea there has been an impressive bounce back in local bus ridership in small metro areas."
Metropolitan Planning Council
The Metropolitan Planning Council "is a planning and policy organization addressing regional built environment issues through a racial and economic justice lens." Senior Director Audrey Wennink said the top priority that comes to mind is to get a full funding grant agreement for the Red Line Extension before the Trump administration reboots.
"Also, we would hope that U.S. Department of Transportation will not delay in awarding Charging and Fueling Infrastructure Round 2 grants," Wennink said. "Applications were submitted on September 11. Illinois has submitted an application, including charging infrastructure for large trucks, at several locations in the state, including truck stops."
Ride Illinois
Ride Illinois is the statewide bike advocacy organization. "It’s been a strange, frustrating head-scratcher of a week," acknowledged Executive Director Dave Simmons a few days after the ballots were counted. "In the days since the election, we’ve had conversations related to its impacts on bike/walk advocacy in Illinois and at the national level. The focus of those conversations has been the priorities and likely leaders of the next administration as they relate to biking, walking, and transit. Ride Illinois is concerned about possible retribution from the president-elect on the state, as a whole, and Chicago, in particular. If the first Trump term is a prelude to a second term, funding for active, sustainable transportation won’t be high on the priority list. Caron Whitaker from League of American Bicyclists summed up the first Trump term’s approach to biking and walking as 'benign neglect.'"
"We’ve learned that there are some guardrails in place that offer some glimmers of hope," Simmons added. "For example, 73 percent of Americans are covered by a Safe Streets and Roads for All plan, and every state, including Illinois, completed a VRU Safety Assessment which influences the infrastructure design and decisions. Plus, the new [American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials] Guide for the Development of Bikeway Facilities should be released by the end of the year, and there is interest at the local and state level in implementing new recommendations. Lastly, the current federal infrastructure bill runs through 2026, so funding is available to continue implementing bike/ped improvements as part of infrastructure projects in the near term. There is certainly concern that the next administration will seek non-traditional ways to cut funding, so I suspect that conversations will be ongoing."
"Prior to the [Trump] inauguration in January, Ride Illinois encourages Governor [JB] Pritzker to strategize with [Chicago Mayor Brandon] Johnson, and other leaders and decision-makers to ensure that funding for key infrastructure projects is secured," Simmons stated. "It would be wise to develop contingency plans for worst-case scenarios. The projected [Chicago-area transit funding] shortfall in 2026 is also a major concern. Identifying creative, proactive solutions to address the shortfall prior to January 20, 2025 is a must as reliable transit is a necessity for hard-working people in Chicagoland."
"Advocacy orgs working on matters related to biking, walking, and transit will likely be facing headwinds in the coming years," Simmons concluded. "Engaged, involved individuals and community organizations will be crucial to progress and supporting the gains that have been made in recent years. The next four years are likely to be bumpy ride."
Chicago, Bike Grid Now!
Chicago, Bike Grid Now! describes itself as "an activist organization formed to mobilize the public and compel elected leaders to implement 450 miles of cyclist and pedestrian-prioritized roads (the bike grid)."
"In response to the incoming federal administration change, CBGN is digging in deeper to advance our mission: to establish a connected network of low-stress streets for Chicagoans to bike, walk, and roll safely to work and school; and to see friends and family," the group said in a statement. "As federal politics roil, we urge our local politicians to prioritize noticeable improvements in Chicagoans' lives, including low-cost infrastructure built for people, not cars. If we can create a city where citizens can get around without the constant stress of being in a car or being hit by a car, we can improve public health, plan for environmental sustainability, and show that Chicago can and will thrive despite the threats of a new administration."
How Project 2025 could impact sustainable transportation
Also called the 2025 Presidential Transition Project, Project 2025 was published in 2023 by the right-wing Heritage Foundation with the goal of giving more executive power to the president in the event that Donald Trump won reelection.
While Trump has disavowed the document, it included input from many of his former staffers, and reads much like the 2016 Republican platform, published the year when he was elected. That plan called for eliminating federal grants for Amtrak, transit, bike-share programs, trails, and sidewalks – pretty much any type of ground transportation that didn’t involve cars or trucks. It's very likely that Project 2025 will, in fact, heavily influence the 47th president's policies.
The plan’s discussion of transportation policy trots out old right-wing cliches about spending cash on car infrastructure being a "public investment", while contributing federal dollars for walk/bike/transit projects is a "wasteful subsidy".
Project 2025's federal transit policy section makes it clear that one goal is to eliminate federal grants for public transportation, which are crucial for upgrading and expanding service. "With the federal government facing mounting debt, the best course of action would be to remove federal subsidies for transit spending," the plan asserts. It also suggests, "There should be a focus on reducing costs that make transit uneconomical," such as cutting labor expenses.
There’s a double standard here, because U.S. roads and highways that serve cars and trucks are heavily subsidized by those of us who provide payroll, sales, and property taxes to the feds, even if you rarely drive a car. However, conservative deficit hawks argue that bus and train networks should be financially self-sufficient, but never make the same demands of infrastructure for motorists.
And when it comes to transit systems, the Project 2025 writers know, as Oscar Wilde would say, "the price of everything but the value of nothing." They fail to acknowledge that by reducing car use, public transportation saves our country a fortune by lowering expenses associated with crashes, traffic jams, air pollution, and repaving roads.
Meanwhile, car infrastructure projects have the opposite effect by encouraging more driving. For example, during a single week in June, reckless motorists drove into the storefronts of both an Italian pasteria and a Greek diner in Chicago. And last month, a driver crashed into rock musician Billy Corgan's Highland Park cafe, injuring his mother-in-law who was eating there. Luckily no one was seriously injured in any of these cases, but there was extensive property damage. And, of course, the loss of life to traffic crashes in our city is a tragically common problem.
Since Project 2025 calls for cutting federal transit grants, "allowing states and localities to decide whether mass transit is a good investment for them," why don’t they do the same for federal driving grants?
After all, here in Illinois, the state transportation department recently expanded the Jane Byrne Interchange highway “spaghetti bowl”. The work was largely completed by December 2022 at a final cost of $804.6 million, currently equivalent to $864.5 million. Almost entirely paid for with federal grants, the expansion has encouraged more driving and car-dependence, and the societal harms associated with them.
Compare that to the CTA’s South Red Line Reconstruction Project, which rebuilt over 10 miles of track to eliminate "slow zones", saving 20 minutes on the roundtrip from the Far South Side to the South Loop. The project also included renovating eight stations, with three of them getting new elevators. Also funded with grants, the reconstruction was completed in October 2013 for $425 million, or $573 million in today’s dollars.
Instead of enabling more driving, the CTA initiative made it easier to get to education, jobs, retail, and medical appointments without a motor vehicle. That has helped reduce serious and fatal crashes; property damage; traffic congestion; emissions; and road repair costs.
So it’s obvious that it was the transit overhaul, not the road expansion, that had the most bang for the buck. Unfortunately, we must brace ourselves for the second Donald Trump administration, egged on by Project 2025, to have an entirely car-centric perspective on how federal transportation dollars should be spent.
Thanks to Streetsblog LA Editor Joe Linton for input on Project 2025.
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